Golf is a popular sport often requiring long hours of practice in order to succeed. Hence, golfers, in order to excel at this sport, often put in numerous hours of practice to try and improve his or her golf game.
Generally speaking, golfers generally practice by hitting golf balls at an outdoor driving range, allowing a golfer to repeatedly hone in on his or her skill by striking a golf ball. Although a driving range provides a great avenue for practice, a trip to the driving range can be quite time-consuming, since one often has to drive the car 10 to 30 minutes to the range and the same time to return home. Often, an additional 30 minutes to an hour is wasted commuting.
In order to provide a golfer more time to practice without the need to go to an outdoor driving range, golf nets have been invented allowing a golfer to practice in a more compact space, often in the golfer's own house or back yard. However, despite the immense advantages the golf net offers when compared to a driving range, it still suffers from several flaws that prevent it from being a popular practicing avenue for your average golfer.
First off, the average golf net suffers from being generally bulky in construction. U.S. Pat. No. 1,430,280 to Bolton shows one of the earlier attempts to create a golf net, and it's bulkiness can be immediately seen from the figures. U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,146 to Windall further illustrates the bulkiness of the modern day golf net when it tries to provide a user with some visual feedback of the golf shot. In fact, in the modern day era, outdoor golf nets can often reach a size of greater than 20 feet in height, making it difficult to be incorporated into a compact environment inside a residence.
Another drawback associated with the common golf net is that it requires extensive assembly and disassembly in order to prepare the apparatus for use. This is especially prevalent in situations wherein space is at a premium, and a bulky golf net can not just be left there without hindering the everyday activities of a residential family. Due to the often cumbersome process, it will often prohibit and discourage a golfer from practicing due to the lengthy time spent with assembly and disassembly.
Finally, another drawback associated with the common golf net is that it is often very fragile due to the netting used to catch the golf ball, requiring the golf net to be replaced frequently. This short life cycle of the common golf net not only discourages a golfer from practicing, it often prohibits a golfer from even purchasing a golf net.
Hence, as it can be seen from above, despite all the attempts in addressing the need of a golfer to get in the necessary practice via a golf net, the current art falls short in providing a suitable solution for giving the everyday golfer a compact, durable, and non-cumbersome practicing device.